


Normandy Coffee

by deepestwells



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Gen, Mass Effect - Freeform, Past Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard, coffee shop AU, no Reaper war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2018-09-27 07:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9982925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepestwells/pseuds/deepestwells
Summary: On break from cleaning up the mercenary groups on Omega, Garrus visits his friend James Vega on the Citadel and meets an intriguing human woman in a coffee shop.Shepard has retired from military life and works as a manager at her former captain's coffee shop, Normandy Coffee.





	1. So Many Retired Friends...

He brought up the message one more time to make sure that he got the right café. “Normandy Coffee” read the neon sign. Looks like the place. Despite the calm of the Presidium, the café seemed downright rowdy and not well suited to the usual Presidium crowd, though peering through the windows he could see several embassy officials and other stuffy shirts who looked like they were genuinely enjoying themselves.

He finally walked inside and looked over the large crowd, trying to find the beefcake that was James Vega. “Garrus! You made it!” came the shout across the room. Garrus turned in the direction of the familiar voice and watched Vega make waves through the crowd as he approached.

“Jimmy Vega, full of muscles as always,” Garrus said, embracing the man.

James laughed and clapped the turian on the back. “Can’t stop working out just because I’m retired!”

“So what are we doing meeting here?” Garrus asked. “This place seems too wholesome for your usual taste.”

“A friend of mine owns the place and a few other friends work here,” he started leading Garrus to the counter. “Let’s go, I’ll introduce you. They have the best coffee on the Citadel. Though I can’t say that for the dextro stuff, since I haven’t tried it.”

“How did your friend manage to get a storefront on the Presidium?”

James smiled. “I guess you have your pick of the litter when you’re the first human Councilor.”

“Your friend is former Councilor David Anderson?” Garrus was surprised. “Didn’t know you rubbed elbows with the big wigs.”

“The one and only. I met him through another friend. The two of them served on the SSV Normandy together before he retired and I joined the crew. She’s the manager here actually.”

They had finally made their way to the front of the line. “James!” beamed the red headed human woman behind the counter. “Chugged your latte already?”

“Nah, Lola. Just wanted to introduce you to my friend here, Garrus Vakarian. Garrus, this is Commander Shepard of the famous SSV Normandy.”

“ _Retired_ commander,” she corrected. Garrus was surprised at how young she was. His visor indicated that she was somewhere in her mid-thirties, quite young to be retiring from the Alliance Navy.

“Nice to meet Jimmy’s friends,” Garrus said, sticking out his hand in the human fashion of introductions.

“Likewise,” she said. “So what can I get you?”

Garrus was suddenly lost, not having thought about what he would actually order while he and James were standing in line. He hated people who held up long lines like that and he was ashamed to have become one of those people now. He looked up at the menu boards, panicked. “Uhh…”

“Our dextro friendly menu is on the right,” Shepard said, indicating the two right-most screens.

Still lost, Garrus asked for a recommendation. Shepard chuckled, but not at him and his mandibles twitched in turian mirror of her expression. “I hear from our turian and quarian customers that the classic café latte is quite good.”

“Then a classic café latte is what I will have,” Garrus said, relieved that the ordering was over.

Once Shepard processed his payment she said, “That’ll be right out for you.” She busied herself with the process of making the concoction and Garrus and James stepped off to the side, allowing the next customer to present herself at the counter.

“And here you are!” Shepard said, handing the cup to Garrus after a couple of minutes. Their fingers briefly brushed and he was surprised at how different the sensation was from their handshake minutes earlier. It felt more intimate somehow. Or maybe he was just reading too much into it. Humans and turians rarely get intimate. As far as he knew. His mind was just rambling now. He should say something smooth.

“Thanks,” he said. _Way to go, Vakarian_.

“Sure thing.” Shepard focused on her next customer, oblivious to the inner battle within him.

Well, as long as he didn’t destroy the impression of smooth operative that he tries to cultivate for most of his first impressions, then perhaps all is not yet lost.

Focusing back on the here and now, Garrus and James made their way back to the little table that James had claimed for the two of them. He dwarfed the space, making the table and the café at large feel crowded. “Is everyone retiring from the Alliance now?” Garrus asked.

“Nah,” James said, taking a sip of his latte. “It’s just mostly the Normandy crew. We’ve had a rough few years, let’s just put it that way.”

Garrus had, of course, heard about the last few years of goings on with the SSV Normandy. Everybody had. It was the most famous ship in the Alliance and thanks to a journalist imbedded on the ship, the exploits of the Normandy, particularly their fight with Cerberus, a human-first terrorist organization, were well documented. Garrus was especially interested since the ship’s design was a collaborative effort between humans and turians.

“All right, as much as I love talking about myself, how are you? How was your latest trip to Omega?” James said, raising his eyebrows at Garrus in that peculiar human expression of curiosity.

“Omega was the usual. Get rid of one mercenary group, two more pop up in its place. And Aria isn’t interested in any of my cleanup efforts, though I suppose I should be thankful that she’s not hindering them either. I’ve actually been back on Palaven for a while. Figured it was time I faced my father with my life decisions.” He chuckled wryly.

“So are you here on vacation from the mercs or from your father?” James asked.

“Both. Though Omega certainly felt more fulfilling.” Garrus took a sip of his classic café latte and found that the turian and quarian customers that Shepard had mentioned knew a good cup of coffee when they tasted one. He was usually more of a black coffee sort of drinker, but he felt himself softening now that he was on the Citadel – his old stomping ground. He looked back to the counter, seeing a flash of red as Shepard flew from side to side between dealing with customers and attending to her other duties behind the counter. It looked like she was finally joined by another human, who took up a position at the counter.

“How long are you staying on the Citadel?”

“I don’t know,” Garrus said, half hearing the question and not taking his eyes off of the human woman that was currently intriguing him. He didn’t have a human fetish, but there was something about Shepard that he found captivating.

“Hey, Garrus? Citadel to Garrus,” James said, waving his hand in front of Garrus’s face to get him to snap out of his reverie.

“What? Oh, sorry. I just got caught up in my thoughts.”

“Yeah, Lola will do that to you,” James smirked. “If you’re so interested, big man, you should go for it.”

Garrus’s head snapped back. “That’s a bit sudden don’t you think? Besides, she’s working so who knows, maybe she was just being nice for that good customer service rating. And because you’re her friend.”

“Trust me, Gare-bear. She’s not faking it. But fine.” James pulled up his omni-tool and typed out a quick message.

Garrus was suddenly suspicious. “What was that?”

“I reached out to a few friends. I’m throwing a party tonight at my place and you can’t say no. Shepard is on the invite list.” He looked proud of himself.

Garrus shook his head. “I’ve been here less than an hour and you’re trying to set me up? With a human no less?”

“Well, I’m not friends any turian ladies that you might be into. So yeah. Besides, you seem like you haven’t gotten some in forever.”

“I will not dignify that with a response,” Garrus said, turning away and taking a regal sip of his drink.

“Fine. Just be at my place at 8 tonight. And wear something nice.”

“What’s wrong with my armor?” Garrus said, somewhat insulted, looking down at his pride and joy.

“It’s a party, not a battle. I don’t know why you insist on wearing that thing everywhere you go.”

“You never know when a firefight might break out.” Garrus was aware of how defensive he sounded.

“This is the Citadel, not Omega. You’re fine.”

Garrus sighed. “Fine. I won’t wear my armor.”

“’Atta boy.”

***

“Kaidan, punctual as always,” Shepard said, laughing, as he emerged from the employee-only hallway, tying his Normandy coffee apron around his waist.

“Of course, Shepard. I was trained to follow the rule book down to the letter. So not a minute too late, nor a minute too early. Besides, if I don’t practice discipline myself, how are my students supposed to follow my example?”

“Well, as long as they don’t use their biotics irresponsibly, I’d say you’re succeeding,” Shepard said, handing off the latest drink order with a smile. She loved this. The excitement of a busy time at the cafe was nothing like the excitement of battle, but it came with its own little challengers. And after so much hardship in the Alliance, she was happy to live a quiet civilian life, finally free of struggle.

The rush had died down some and while the cafe was crowded with customers, no one seemed to need her attention at the moment, freeing her up to work on the shift check list. “Kaidan, can you make sure our stock of dextro baked goods is full up? They were especially popular this afternoon.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” Kaidan looked into the cabinet below the glass case that displayed the baked goods and ascertained what needed to be added from the back to ensure a ready supply.

Shepard’s omni-tool had beeped a minute ago and since she had a free moment, she decided to check her messages. It was an invitation from James to a party at his place that night. She laughed.

“What’s up?” Kaidan said, placing the container of baked goods he had carried in from the back on the counter above him and proceeding to restock the selection in the cabinet beneath.

“Did you get the message from James?”

“Oh, yeah. That party? Sounds like fun,” Kaidan said, not pausing in his task.

Shepard chuckled again. “I don’t know why he didn’t just come up here to invite us, since he’s right over there.”

Kaidan’s head popped up. “Where?”

“At the back there, with his turian friend.”

“I didn’t know Vega had a turian friend,” Kaidan said, wiping the crumbs off the counter that were left behind from his efforts.

“Apparently. His name is Garrus. He seemed like a nice guy when he ordered his drink. Granted that’s not much of an introduction.”

“I wonder if he’ll be at the party.”

“I hope so,” Shepard said, laughing and shaking her head. “I simply must know what someone does for a living, other than military, to warrant walking around in armor all the time.”


	2. Justice in an Unjust Galaxy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James Vega throws a party and dancing and flirting ensues.

Once Kaidan finally made it to her place later that evening after their shifts at the café, he and Shepard headed over to James’s apartment for the last minute party he decided to throw.

“You…ah. You look good, Shepard,” said Kaidan, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh this old thing!” she said, sweeping a hand over her black leather dress. “Just a little something I dug out of my closet.”

That made him laugh with relief though his cheeks were still a brighter red than usual. “Retirement suits you,” he said.

“I agree,” she said. “Now I can finally wear all those clothes that have just been languishing in my closet.”

Kaidan knocked on Vega’s door and it swooshed open with the smallest amount of effort, spilling the sounds of music and bright laughter out into the hallway of the apartment complex.

“Shepard!” trilled Tali across the crowd. “You made it!” She made her way to the entrance of the apartment to embrace Shepard as she and Kaidan made their way inside.

“Long time no see, Tali!” Shepard said as their hug drew to a close.

“I wasn’t feeling like coffee today,” the other woman laughed, her eyes glowing through her mask. “Come on, let’s dance!” Tali pulled Shepard onto the dance floor leaving Kaidan to his own devices. Throwing their arms up into the air the two women grooved to the rhythm of the music surrounded by other friends and acquaintances that would no doubt later make fun of Shepard’s dancing, but she was having a good time and couldn’t bring herself to care.

Finally, laughing, she pulled away from Tali, “I am too sober to continue dancing! I’ll be back for more in a bit.”

Tali waved her off and continued dancing in the middle of the living room with the rest of the revelers.

Shepard made her way to the small kitchen where she joined a small crowd looking for drinks. She spotted James on the opposite side of the kitchen, leaning against the counter talking to Steve Cortez.

“James, Steve, hey!” she said, embracing each in turn.

“Hey Lola, glad you could make it,” James said.

“Good to see you, Shepard,” Steve said, tipping his beer in her direction.

“You too, Steve, how have you been?”

“Not too bad. I’m finally getting more flying time which has made work a lot more fun, I will say that,” he responded.

“That’s awesome!” she said. “It’s about time you stretched your flying… wings again.”

“Nice turn of phrase,” Steve said, chuckling.

“Why thank you. I’m told that I’m a credit to humanity,” said Shepard.

“That you are,” James said. “A toast to you, Lola!”

Her eyebrow quirked up. “A bit early in the night to start toasting me, no?”

“It’s never too early to toast the great, Commander Lola Shepard!” James replied. “Huzzah.”

Shepard laughed. “You are incorrigible. I’m going to go talk to someone a bit more sensible until I get to your level of drunkenness.”

She grabbed a drink and made her way around the apartment saying hello to friends and acquaintances but not staying anywhere for very long. After a few minutes of making the rounds she spotted James’s friend Garrus from earlier that day. He seemed to be in a deep, animated conversation with Nyreen, the only female turian around that she could see. Shepard hoped that he wasn’t getting his hopes up.

She approached the duo intending to say hello to them both when Nyreen started walking away, leaving Shepard alone with Garrus on the edge of the party. “Nice you see you again, Garrus,” she said.

“Yeah, you too. Shepard, right?” he said.

“That’s me,” she said, nodding. “I see you’ve met Nyreen.”

“Yeah…” he said hesitantly as the two of them watched the other turian weave through the crowd and disappear. “I must be losing my flirting skills. I don’t think that she’ll be back.”

Shepard clapped a hand on Garrus’s shoulder. “Don’t take it too hard,” she said. “Nyreen is in what one can call a ‘complicated relationship’ with Aria. She’s the asari, way over there.” She pointed to where the asari in question stood at the head of a circle of admirers.

“Ah,” he said. They lapsed into silence and Shepard was thinking of a way to cheer him up since he seemed a bit bummed out.

After a while Shepard turned to him and said, “Well, if you’re super concerned about your flirting skills, you can practice on me if you’d like. I’ll be sure to give you an honest review.”

That got a laugh out of him. “Sure,” he said slowly, a mandible flicking in what Shepard interpreted as a smile.

Shepard struck a pose. “So. A turian on shore leave. You come here often?”

“Oh, we’re starting already?” He cleared his throat. “Got it. Yes. Yeah.” His voice dropped in pitch. “Yeah, I come here often. Good place to blow off steam…scenery’s not bad either.” He looked around at the party goers and then faced Shepard again. “Though the view in front of me is even better.”

Shepard smirked. “That supposed to melt a girl’s heart?”

“No,” he said, slow like honey. “But this voice is.” He leaned in close, the warmth and vibration in his voice making Shepard’s pulse quicken. “Garrus Vakarian. Codename: Archangel. All around turian bad boy and dispenser of justice in an unjust galaxy.” He paused. “And you are?”

“Shepard. Formerly with the Alliance Navy.” She was putting on her best sultry voice and trying hard not to laugh.

“Shepard, huh? I might have heard a few things about _you.”_

“If they’re naughty, they’re right.”

“Well I’m looking forward to finding out.”

She found his voice to be bone-meltingly sexy but she tried to keep her cool. “Uh-huh. And do most girls fall for that?”

“Well, sure. You know, this voice and um… ah…” He leaned back, no longer sultry and seductive. “I’m running out of banter here, Shepard.”

“Oh don’t give up so easily! Make it up. Remember, we just met,” she said, her face contorting with the effort to not laugh.

“We did just meet,” he pointed out.

“Well,” she said. “We met even later. Remember, you’re trying to flirt with me.”

He looked around and then leaned forward again. “Right. Yeah, I mean, yeah… all the girls fall for it. Let me show you.” He grabbed her hand and started dragging her onto the dance floor.

***

“I see you’ve met Nyreen.”

“Yeah…” Garrus said hesitantly as the two of them watched the other turian weave through the crowd and disappear. The two of them had been discussing their time on Omega in a roundabout way. The longer they talked though, the more he got the impression that he had heard of Nyreen and her involvement with the Talons – one of the gangs on Omega that wasn’t directly affiliated with one of the mercenary groups that called the station home.

He also got the distinct impression that she knew that he was Archangel and what he had been doing on the station too.

He looked at Shepard and was intrigued by her dress. While he wasn’t usually attracted to humans, he had to admit to himself that he found her dress and appearance aesthetically pleasing. He decided to try to strike up a flirty conversation. Everyone loved a bit of humor. “I must be losing my flirting skills. I don’t think that she’ll be back.”

 _Ah, yes, Vakarian_ , he said to himself, _that’s the way to get women interested. By declaring how uninteresting you are._

Shepard told him about Nyreen’s romantic entanglements which promptly seemed to bring the conversation to a dead end. He took a sip of his drink.

After a bit of silence she said, “Well, if you’re super concerned about your flirting skills, you can practice on me if you’d like. I’ll be sure to give you an honest review.”

Garrus was a bit taken aback. Was she flirting with him? He decided to throw caution to the wind and embarked on a flirting scenario with Shepard, who was clearly amused at his efforts. Perhaps “dispenser of justice in an unjust galaxy” was a step too far but she seemed to be enjoying his attention, which he found encouraging.

“And you are?” he said, hoping to get her to participate.

Without missing a beat, “Shepard. Formerly with the Alliance Navy.” Her voice dropped lower into what Garrus interpreted as an attempt at seduction. He found it rather alluring despite its transparency.

“Shepard, huh? I might have heard a few things about _you.”_

There was a mischievous glint in her eye. “If they’re naughty, they’re right.”

Garrus matched her for mischief. “Well I’m looking forward to finding out.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Uh-huh. And do most girls fall for that?”

He was running out of ideas, but she encouraged him to go on. He looked around and spotted James over by the music controls, throwing him a wink. The music changed from a techno beat to something more conducive to dancing with a partner. He leaned forward. “Right. Yeah, I mean, yeah… all the girls fall for it. Let me show you.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor.

He led the two of them through the dancing crowd with expert ease. She seemed at first alarmed, but eventually she got the hang of following his lead and their dance became fluid and easy. “I’ve been taking lessons on the side,” he confessed to her, making her face split into a giant grin.

“You don’t say,” she responded, kicking up her foot with an artistic flourish.

Their dance was gathering quite an audience but Garrus kept his focus on his dance partner, having more fun than he’s had in a while.

As the music rose, he turned her out, briefly letting go of her hand. She twirled out and stopped right in front of James, who was still standing over by the music controls. She winked to him in a flirty manner before Garrus took hold of her hand once again and twirled her back into his arms. Finally the music faded and they finished out the song with a dramatic dip.

As he held her bent over his leg, hers folded over his waist, he asked, “So, tell me. Would a girl fall for that?”

Her breathing was as hard as his own but she answered immediately. “Oh hell yes.” She smiled a wicked smile. “You’ve got pretty good reach and flexibility.”

“You know it,” he said, thinking of a saucy reply. “And it gets even better when you try it in bed.”

The music transitioned to something more traditionally suitable for a party, but instead of dancing, the other people crowding around the dance floor were giving Garrus and Shepard a round of applause, with several encouraging calls and whistles thrown into the mix.

Garrus pulled her up and the two took a few theatrical bows before standing off to the side again, the gap created by their performance filling up with other dancers once again.

“So tell me, Garrus,” Shepard said. “What does a dispenser of justice in an unjust galaxy do exactly?”

“It’s quite the long story, are you sure you’re up for it?” he said, taking a drink.

“Oh I’m always ready to hear about justice and the dispensation thereof,” she said laughing.

He flicked his mandibles in pleasure and began. “I used to be in C-Sec. Family business and all that. My father was C-Sec through and through. I preferred to do things a bit more,” he paused searching for the right word. “Unconventionally.”

“I bet that made things difficult with him,” she said.

“Yeah. Eventually I quit. Took my skills to Omega.”

Shepard looked thrown aback. “Omega? That’s quite the separation from C-Sec. Did you join a merc gang or something?”

He hesitated, not sure how much to tell her.

“I promise, I’ll keep your secret,” she said conspiratorially.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just weird talking about it,” he said and coughed uncomfortably.

“Well, after telling me what a turian bad boy you are, and that you have a cool code name, you can’t just leave me hanging!”

“Very well. No, I was not a merc. I made it my business to clean up the merc bands on the station,” he said. “Not an especially lucrative occupation, but it was fulfilling. It was what I needed at the time. No red tape to wade through. Just see what needed to be done and do it. It was simple.”

Shepard nodded. “I get that. Needing simple. I suppose that’s why I retired so early.” He raised her glass and gestured towards his own. “A toast to the simple things in life.”

Garrus flicked his mandibles, chuckling. “To the simple things.” He clinked glasses with the human woman who had so intrigued him, thinking that this party wasn’t so bad after all.


	3. Late Nights and Early Mornings

They spent the rest of the evening in each other’s vicinity, though not necessarily interacting. Garrus glanced at Shepard every once in a while, fascinated by the woman’s smile as she talked with this friend and that. He could almost swear that she looked his way sometimes too, the thought of which both warmed him and puzzled him. The notion that he had never before been attracted to other species reappeared, followed by “there’s a first time for everything.”

After a while standing around with a drink in his hand as a prop and an awkward disposition became tiresome and Garrus decided to call it a night. “I’m going to head out, Jimmy. Thanks for the invitation.”

“Aww, so soon, Garrus?”

“I need to take the whole socializing thing slow or I’m going to strain a muscle,” he chuckled. “I’ll see you later.”

“All right, buddy. Take it easy.” James clapped Garrus on the back and turned back to his hosting duties.

Garrus made his way through the crowd towards the apartment door when he felt a hand on his arm. “Leaving already?” came a now familiar voice.

“Yeah, Shepard. There’s only so long I can stand around before it gets awkward.” He hoped his self-deprecation came off as charming rather than pathetic.

She nodded. “I feel you. I’m leaving too. Shall we walk together?”

He was pleasantly surprised. “Sure. After you.” He indicated the door and the two of them walked out into the Citadel night.

“Where are you staying while you’re here?” she asked.

“My abandoned little apartment on Zakera Ward,” he said.

“Oh? I didn’t realize you’d have a permanent place here,” she said. “What with your Omega stints and all.”

“I sort of just up and left. Didn’t bother getting rid of the apartment,” he said, looking at the ground as they walked side by side. “I suppose it worked out well enough since now I have somewhere to stay.”

“You going to be around for a while?”

He looked at her and chuckled, mostly at himself. “To be honest, I have no idea. I’m a little aimless at the moment.”

She nodded and smiled sympathetically. “I’ve been there. Being a soldier was all I knew and when I retired… it was hard to pick a direction to go from there. I just wanted to try out the civilian life. See what that was like.”

Garrus watched her face and it got far away. “What about before the Alliance?” Her face clouded then and he backtracked. “Sorry, bad subject?”

“You could say that. Tell you what though,” she said, chuckling. “We’ll hang out a few more times and then I’ll tell you my tragic back story and you can tell me yours.”

“It’s a deal,” he said.

“Speaking of which,” Shepard said, pulling up her omni-tool. “Here’s my contact info.”

Garrus’s omni-tool glowed in response as the connection was formed. “I’ll be sure to plan several activities conducive to bonding so that way we can share tragic backstories on schedule.”

Shepard nodded, her face a mask of seriousness. “That sounds like a very logical plan.” She laughed then and Garrus was glad that she knew that he was joking. Mostly.

“This is me,” she said eventually, indicating the apartment building they had arrived at. “I’ll see you around, Garrus.” She gave him a hug and he felt like he was at all the wrong angles and hoped that she didn’t find him just as awkward.

 

***

“Lola, if you’re not at the gym in half an hour, I am going to go over to your place and drag you there myself,” came James’s voice through her omni-tool. “And I will, of course, never let you live it down. The great Commander Shepard, skipping a gym day just to sleep in after a party.”

Shepard groaned and made a note to adjust the volume settings on her omni-tool so that she can never again be so rudely awoken by such a message. James had declined to actually have a conversation with her, not giving her the chance to throw withering glances his way before she decided to skip the gym after all.

Doesn’t a hero, and a retired one at that, get to sleep in every once in a while? Work no longer demanded that her body be as hard as a rock.

Regardless, she still slipped out of her warm, soft sheets and out into the chilly air of her bedroom, her body going into autopilot as she got ready to hit the gym. She and James had made a pact of sorts to keep in shape despite having retired from the Alliance, but she had been silly enough to think that a late party at James’s place would excuse them from hitting the gym as early as usual the following day.

Having pulled on her workout clothes and chugged a glass of water, Shepard grabbed her gym bag, already packed and ready to go by the door, and headed to the gym where she met James every day at 0430.

“Damn, Lola, you look like death warmed over!” James said, stretching at the squatting rack he had already laid claim to. Shepard dropped her stuff at the unoccupied rack next to him, which was not her usual rack.

“Perhaps, but I still managed to be ten minutes early. I see he’s dragged you into this too, Garrus?” she said. “You took my rack, by the way.”

He chuckled. “First come, first serve, Shepard.”

She grumbled under her breath and her companions pretended not to hear. “How are you two so chipper right now? James, I _know_ you got less sleep than me since you were still partying hard when we left. And Garrus, you walked me home, so I can only assume you went to bed later than I did too.”

“To tell you the truth,” Garrus said. “I feel dead inside. Reminds me of the time some of Omega’s merc groups banded together to take me out. I didn’t sleep for four days straight.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say there’s a hysterical edge to your voice from lack of sleep,” Shepard accused.

“Nah,” said James. “Garrus is one tough son of a bitch. Did he tell you about that time he took out two mercenary bands singlehandedly?”

Shepard began stretching, leaning forward to see Garrus on the other side of James. “No, he did not. I’m assuming he saved that for second date material.”

“Third, actually.”

“I stand corrected.”

Their workout proceeded more or less as usual, though it took longer since Shepard felt like she was dying on the inside and needed more rest in between sets. It wasn’t a terrible predicament, what with the company she found herself in.

After the last plank finished off their accessory exercises, Shepard collapsed onto the mat, sweaty, but ultimately happy as the post-workout endorphins kicked in. She glanced at the clock on the wall of the gym. It was already 5:35.

Shepard groaned from her sweaty heap on the floor. “Don’t you just feel alive after a good workout?” James said, smiling.

“Sure,” she said. “Only I’ll feel more alive when I get more sleep and don’t have to open the cafe at 0600.” She painstakingly pulled herself up and held out an arm to help Garrus, who seemed to be somewhat beat himself. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to become unsweaty and work appropriate in record time to not be late.”

She and Garrus left James behind as he did some additional exercises and headed towards the locker rooms. “It was good to see you again, Garrus,” she said.

“Agreed.”

“See you around the café?”

Garrus chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure you will.”


	4. Getting Shot on Vacation

“Shit. Shit. Shit…” Shepard said under her breath as she unlocked the doors to Normandy Coffee twelve minutes late. That’s twelve minutes of prep time that has now disappeared. She made a mental note to suggest an earlier meeting time with James at the gym, much as she was loathe to get up even earlier.

She locked the door behind herself and walked behind the counter into the little staff room where she dropped her small backpack and grabbed her apron from a hook. Wrapping the apron around her waist she methodically began to work, purposefully not rushing. That route leads to pouring hot coffee all over oneself, which she unfortunately knew from personal experience early on in her coffee shop career. Luckily, the cleaning procedures from the night before were followed to a T and so set-up was fairly simple.

Once the coffee machines were happily burbling she began overturning chairs in the seating area, waiting to hear from their bakery to accept the shipment for the day’s goods. The seating of the Normandy Coffee was an eclectic mix of chairs and small tables from most of the species found on the Citadel. Though most of the furniture was traditionally human, there were a few elegant seats from Thessia and utilitarian furniture from Palven, as well as some cheap recreations of traditional quarian designs. Some of the furniture was designed to accommodate the larger species that could be found on the space station, namely the krogan and the elcor. Those particular seats were too heavy to lift on top of the coffee tables and thus remained unmoved, even during clean up.

When her omni-tool pinged with a message from the bakery, she unlocked the door to accept the delivery. “Hey, Miranda,” she said, letting the brunette into the shop with her cart laden with baked goods.

“Morning, Shepard,” came the reply. “I’ve been doing some experimenting this morning, so I expect a report from you at the end of the day on how these are selling.” Miranda walked around the counter as though she owned the place and began artfully arranging a display of the day’s offerings in the glass cabinets, carefully arranging the rest below the counter and some of the more popular items also in the stockroom.

Shepard walked over to the display of levo-amino baked goods. “I hope you plan on telling me what this new concoction is,” she said, pointing to something she could almost call a cupcake, though in the shape of an apple core, with glistening strands of sugar hardened into a cage flowing off the top and around the edges.

Shepard pulled one out from beneath the counter and was about to eat it when Miranda said, “Nuh uh! You can only have one if you offer me some coffee. And then I’ll tell you what it is. I’ve also tried out some new dextro recipes, so if you could get me some feedback on those, that would be amazing.”

As Miranda was putting the finishing touches on her arrangements, Shepard pulled two mugs down from the display shelves against the back wall - also a mix of dishware from different species, since Anderson, the owner, traveled throughout the galaxy during his military career - and poured her favorite blend of in-house coffee.

“Cream and/or sugar?” she asked, pouring some cream for herself.

“I think I’ll try the cream this time,” Miranda replied.

Shepard twisted her features into an exaggeration of surprise. “But I thought you only ever drank black coffee and that cream was, what was that quaint phrase you used? ‘Cream and sugar are for weaklings.’ Yes, that was it.”

“A girl can change her mind,” Miranda said. “I’m feeling indulgent today.”

Shepard nodded as she poured Miranda the cream. “That would explain the experiment. Speaking of which, spill.”

***

Garrus found himself wandering around his apartment aimlessly, unsure of what to do with himself. He was never much of a homebody, always feeling like there was something he had to do. And even then, his work had always kept him away from home for most of his conscious hours. He didn’t know what to do with free time. The concept was as foreign to him as vacations. Even the fact that he decided to come back to the Citadel was now a puzzle to him.

The apartment he owned on the Citadel was small but serviceable and in true turian fashion, had few knick-knacks littering any surfaces. It was clean and utilitarian, but in his case the minimalism was less of a style choice and more the result of abandonment. He barely even saw it in the light of day, having stopped there the day before only to drop off his luggage, what little of it he had, before going out to meet James at the cafe. The next time he was there for any significant amount, he was sleeping off the party, his dreams muddled by the presence of Shepard.

With a sigh, Garrus walked out of his apartment and went to Normandy Coffee on the Presidium. Worst case scenario, he would hang around and drink dextro coffee until James showed up.

The cafe was busy when he arrived and a tall, muscular woman with a nametag that read “Ashley” took his order. Shepard was running around looking busy behind the counter, but Garrus managed to catch her eye and raised a hand in greeting. She threw a quick smile his way and continued working. Garrus ordered the next dextro drink down the list and randomly pointed at a dextro pastry displayed to the left of the cash register.

“I’ll get that right out for you,” Ashley said, moving with the ease and efficiency of a professional. Though professional what, Garrus couldn’t say. Considering what he knew about the employees of the cafe so far, he assumed that Ashley was ex-Alliance like the rest of them.

Garrus walked through the crowded cafe, drink and baked good in hand and plopped down at the first available seating. James hadn’t yet shown up, so he saved a seat for the beefy man. Luckily he didn’t have long to wait.

“Garrus! Got you hooked on the place, huh?"

“You could say that,” Garrus said. “You could also say that I couldn’t find what to do with myself today and decided to show up where you would be.”

James raised an eyebrow. “Me… or Lola?” His voice took on a suggestive tone.

Garrus took a sip of his hot beverage, giving himself a moment of cover while he figured out what James meant. He _thought_ he meant Shepard, but as far as he knew, Lola was not her name.

“Red?” James tried again. “The manager of the best damn cafe on the Citadel?”

“Ah! So you do mean Shepard,” Garrus said. “Just wanted to make sure that I could respond to your suggestiveness appropriately.”

The woman in question suddenly appeared by their table and whatever rebuttal Garrus was about to make died in his throat. “Sorry guys,” Shepard said. “It’s been something of a crazy morning since I got in late today so I couldn’t say hi.”

“Why is that?” Garrus asked.

She smiled mischievously and pointedly looked at James. “Somebody was taking too long in the gym.”

James threw up his hands. “Hey, you two left before I did, so I can’t be held responsible.”

“You can, and you shall,” Shepard said definitively.

“Well, you wouldn’t have to get to work so early in the morning if you had just accepted my job offer,” James countered.

“I _like_ my job,” she said. “It’s peaceful, even when it gets hectic. And nobody is shooting at me. I’d like to keep it that way.” She tossed her head in Garrus’s direction. “Maybe Garrus will take you up on it.”

“What’s this job offer I’m taking you up on?” the turian in the group asked.

“My consulting firm just got a new contract,” James said. “And we’re looking for another gun. A good one. I figured I’d extend the offer to Lola.”

“You figure that every time you get a new contract,” she said.

“Just want to make sure you keep your options open. Can’t let yourself get too flabby,” he said. “Anyway, Garrus, if you’re looking for something to do, you’d be a perfect guy to have on the team.”

“You’re assuming that _I_ want to have people shooting at me on vacation,” he said.

“Is it really a vacation if no one shoots at you?” James asked.

“Yes,” said Shepard. “Yes it is. In fact, I think that’s the definition of a vacation.”

“Yeah. Of a boring one,” said James. “And Lola, stop trying to talk Garrus out of my offer. I’m hurting here.”

“Garrus strikes me as the type of man to make his own decisions, completely free of my influence” she said, smiling.

But she was already having an influence on him, he knew. Her eyes were challenging and mischevious and Garrus didn’t yet know the answer to what they were asking him.

“I’ll think about it,” he finally said.


	5. Going Sideways

“I still can’t believe that you dragged me into this,” Garrus said. Now nobody teased him about being in armor. It was the expected attire for a patrol at the docks.

“You know how persuasive I can be. You should have been prepared,” James said, smirking.

Garrus checked his assault rifle for what seemed the hundredth time since he arrived at the dock with James an hour ago. If the shipment was much later, he would start pulling out the sniper rifle and tinkering with that. Not that he would actually do that since that smacked of unprofessionalism, and he was nothing if not a professional. This whole job just had his plates itching. 

“Say, Vega, does your security firm often get hired to guard shipments that are this spectacularly late? Because this smells wrong to me.”

“Yeah,” James agreed. “Something’s not right.” He switched his comm over to the squad channel. “Listen up,” he said. “Be extra vigilant and report absolutely anything that is out of the ordinary. If even a crate is in the wrong spot or something, I want to know about it. This thing is probably going to go sideways real quick if we’re not careful.”

“Roger,” said the other member of their company, a drell woman named Darixa. She wasn’t particularly chatty while on a job, but considering James’s disposition, Garrus guessed that she was at least more pleasant off the clock. Garrus doubted the big man would have hired on a whole crew of people that never talked, no matter the situation.

“Heads up we’ve got a shuttle incoming,” Darixa said.

Not long after her announcement, the shuttle came within visual range of Garrus and James, who stood at the docking platform in plain view, their guns casually resting in their arms though ready to use at a moment’s notice.

“It’s the correct shuttle,” Darixa added.

“Wrong pilot though,” James told the squad just as an asari with purple armor stepped out of the shuttle to greet them. This time he spoke to the newcomer, steel in his voice. “I was told to expect Nylissa T’Odaso. Over an hour ago.” 

Garrus didn’t blame him, the asari herself looked mighty suspicious, even without the additional red flags of a late shipment and unexpected pilot change.

“Relax, human, the shipment is here. There were just some complications. Now if you would kindly transfer over the credits, you can take custody of the shipment and we can all be on our way.”

James shook his head. “No can do. The customer requested visual confirmation of the goods before any money changes hands.”

There was a palpable tension in the air, all the more dangerous seeing all the guns involved. Garrus could only see the pilot’s sidearm, but it was the latest Carnifex and those could pack quite a punch. And it looked well cared for. He was feeling considerably less charitable towards his friend at the moment, who roped him into this mess with what he had called “puppy dog” eyes.

“What exactly is in this shipment?” Garrus asked James on the squad’s channel. “Last time I asked you became rather slippery and I didn’t press the issue, but now that we’re probably going to get into a shootout that you promised me wouldn’t happen, I’d really like to know.”

As the asari pilot led the way to the shuttle doors James responded to him. “Some of the latest and greatest weapons mods. Nothing illegal, don’t worry. Just very rare and very expensive. Thus our private security.”

Despite Vega’s assurances that the shipment was not full of illegal goods, Garrus’s anxiety did not ease and he continued to keep an eye on the perimeter as he followed James toward the shuttle. 

Before the two of them were able to see inside the crates loaded onto the shuttle, a shot burst from the shuttle and the pilot flung herself behind some crates on the dock, cursing at her partner’s prematurity. 

Garrus and James were hardly caught off guard and the shot missed as the two of them jumped into flanking positions, James taking the far right, moving around a stack of crates to get to the asari, and Garrus positioned himself on the left to start laying down fire on the person hidden in the shuttle.

“Watch the merch!” James yelled.

“I’m sure whatever explosives are in there are fine in the crates,” Garrus quipped, but he did trade in his assault rifle for his sniper, which would allow him to take out the shooter with more precision and less possible risk of an exploding shuttle.

“We’ve got another shuttle inbound,” yelled Darixa over the comm. “And they’ve got guns blazing!”

Garrus could hear the shuttle guns and the answering assault rifle shots ring out across the dock. He focused in on his own target even while a more intimate gun battle played out on his right. A few moments and his target popped his head out from behind the crates and Garrus fired just one shot, straight to the shoulder, the man falling with a cry of pain. He immediately moved in and confiscated the human man’s weapon and put him in omni-gel ties that functioned as handcuffs now that he was no longer in C-Sec and had access to the real things. He dragged the man out of the shuttle, and he was in enough pain that he didn’t protest the relocation and stayed put as Garrus deposited him far from the action.

“You need help James?” Garrus said, as he quickly surveyed the fight his friend was having with the asari.

“Nah, I’m good,” the man panted, a smile in his voice. “Go help Darixa with the other shuttle.” Garrus watched him for another second longer, long enough to see him jump out of the way of a crate sent flying in his direction by the asari, and went running closer to Darixa’s position on the higher dock on the left, who was currently pinned down by the shuttle’s incessant machine guns.

His visor indicated that the shuttle was fully armored and as he ran, he quickly swapped out the mod on his assault rifle to armor piercing rounds. Taking up a position behind a stack of crates, he started firing freely at the shuttle, which had its guns focused solely on Darixa. The single mindedness suggested an amateur job to him, but that was a mystery to solve another time, while one of his squadmates was not being shot to pieces. 

Garrus quickly noted how James’s fight with the asari had drifted away from the shuttle with the shipment, but his full attention returned to the shuttle he was currently firing at, which finally saw his armor piercing rounds as the more pressing concern and turned its attention to him. The dot that marked Darixa on his HUD moved out of the corner where she was pinned as she said, “Thanks, Vakarian.”

“Sure no prob-” he was cut off as a missle streaked his way from the shuttle too quickly for him to completely clear the blast radius. He tried to jump out of the way but felt a mountain hit him in the face and the back and he collapsed, everything going black as he was buried under crates and finally lost consciousness.

***

With Garrus and James having foregone the gym due to their assignment, Shepard figured she would finally get to sleep in a little bit longer before she had to open the coffee shop at 6 am. Somehow though, she found herself wide awake at 4 am so with a beleaguered sigh, she dragged herself out of bed and headed to the gym alone. Without the distraction of her friends she managed to finish her workout in record time, though the process was lonelier than usual. She strolled casually in to work with no need to rush, having even had enough time to put a little extra flourishes into her makeup and remembering to put on some tasteful, cafe-appropriate jewelry.

“Hey, skipper,” Ashley Williams said as she walked into the cafe for her morning shift. 

“Hi, Ash,” Shepard said. “I do believe you’re the first person I’ve actually spoken to today.”

“No gym buddies this morning?” Ashley said, putting her things in the back “employees only” room and putting her apron on over her head.

“They had an actual job this morning besides being permanent fixtures in here, can you imagine that?” 

Ashley laughed as she started up the coffee makers. “I was starting to wonder if James had any sort of employment or if he was only pretending and playing hard to get with Anderson about a  
job here.”

“I think he enjoys shooting guns too much to ever give up the life,” Shepard said as they smoothly moved back and forth and around each other, getting the place ready. Miranda came and went with another delivery of fresh baked goods and Kaidan, as always, arrived exactly as his shift began, ten minutes before opening.

Shepard glanced at the clock and was about to go over to the door to unlock it and flip the sign from “closed” to “open” when none other than David Anderson let himself into the cafe.

“Anderson!” Shepard said, sharing smiles and a hug with the owner of Normandy Coffee. “I haven’t seen you in ages, how are you?”

“I haven’t been neglecting my cafe for that long have I, Shepard?” he said, a laugh on the edge of his deep voice.

“Not at all, sir,” Shepard said, a smile still on her face, though her posture was immediately going into military-discipline straight. “And if you have, I’ve managed to keep the place afloat in your absence.” 

“At ease,” Anderson said, noticing the change to the postures of all of his post-Alliance employees. “Good morning, Williams. Alenko.”

Ashley and Kaidan each greeted the retired Admiral as he made his way over to the counter. “I’ve got some news,” he said. “Whether it’s good or bad depends on your appetite for competition.”

Shepard and the others gathered around Anderson, his presence as dynamic and engaging as a flame is to a group of moths. 

“I’ve decided to enter Normandy Coffee into the ‘Best Cafe on the Citadel’ competition this year,” he said.

“Finally!” said Ashley. 

“What changed your mind, sir?” Kaidan said. “You weren’t interested in the past few years.”

“I’m thinking of retiring soon,” Anderson said, a smile appearing splitting his lined face. “And I wanted to go out with a bang and really put this place on the map before I left.” He was getting up there, and as much as Shepard didn’t want to admit it, she wasn’t surprised that he would want to retire soon. The man had been like a father to her and the cafe just wouldn’t be the same under a new owner.

“I feel like you should have led with that news, Anderson,” she said. “That seems like the bigger deal of the two.”

“Don’t worry,” he replied. “It won’t be for a bit, but the idea of a complete retirement, even from this place, much as I love it, is starting to appeal. I will make sure that there is a proper chain of command in place. You don’t need to worry about your jobs, I guarantee it.”

That was going to be Shepard’s next question, but since he already answered it, she moved on to her next query. “Is there a buyer lined up already?”

Anderson chuckled, “Slow your roll. There is no new owner lined up, I am not going anywhere for some time, and the only change you have to worry about right now is the competition. I’ll do better than spring the rest of the news on you. You will have plenty of warning before anything big like that happens.” 

“Just not the competition,” Shepard remarked. “That one you’ll spring on us, huh?”

“I have to keep you sharp somehow,” he said, pulling up the details of the competition on his omni-tool. “Speaking of which. I will forward you the details now, but since it’s opening time, I think we need to have an employee meeting this evening after closing. We’ll all meet for dinner at my apartment at 8 to discuss our plan of action. I’m hoping the last minute invitation won’t throw off too many plans, but it’s crucial we start planning now since the competition begins in three weeks.”

Shepard’s omni-tool buzzed with the receipt of the competition details and the dinner invite. “I’ll be there, sir. I’ll make sure that anyone that isn’t there gets filled in on the details.”

“All right,” said Anderson. “I’m going to get out of your hair. You all have a good day and I will see you tonight.”

“Sir, before you go, a coffee,” Kaidan said, handing Anderson a to-go cup with the Admiral’s favorite brew with a touch of creamer, just like he liked it.

“Thank you, Alenko.” He waved a final good bye, cup in hand, and flipped the sign in his wake, leaving the door unlocked behind him.

No longer needed to officially open the cafe, Shepard walked back to the employee side of the counter as their first customer of the day walked in and the fray began.


	6. So It Begins...

“Oh my god what happened?” Shepard exclaimed as she was about to close down the cafe that evening and James and Garrus walked up, the latter’s face bandaged and looking the worse for wear. She let them inside and locked the door, closing the cafe. “Are you all right? I take it the mission didn’t go so well?” 

Shepard moved around the stiff and limping men with grace, letting down the chairs from the nearest table. She had worked twelve hours that day, letting Joker off early so that he could take care of a few things at home before the dinner meeting at Anderson’s place. She supposed that there were a few perks to being the manager, such as letting your friends in after closing. 

The two plopped down into the seats she had prepared for them. Shepard let them gather themselves while she made them both some tea, firing up the hot water kettle and grabbing two mint tea bags and the dextro equivalent.

“I am so sorry, Garrus,” James finally said as she was making the tea. She couldn’t see his face from her spot behind the counter, but his tone suggested that it was not the first time that he had been apologizing.

Likewise, Garrus’s response also had a sense of ritual about it, “Jimmy, I already told you. It’s part of the job. I knew what I was signing up for. Mostly.”

He continued as Shepard put three mugs down on the table in front of them and took a seat herself, drawing one of the mugs close. She looked to James as the least injured of the duo and said, “Report.”

James gave a long sigh and began as Garrus was calmly drinking from his mug. “We were contracted to purchase a shipment of expensive, but perfectly legal, weapon mods for one of our regular customers. The shipment was a couple of hours late, which we knew was a bad sign. Worse still, the pilot of the shuttle once it finally got there was not the pilot I was told to expect. We wanted to inspect the goods before handing over payment, a shoot out ensued, one of my people is unaccounted for, the shipment is gone, and Garrus took a rocket to the face.” That last sentence all came out in a rush, as if sticking all the words together and saying them quickly would somehow lessen the impact.

Shepard took a sip of her tea, watching James over the rim of her cup. When he was no longer forthcoming with any more information, she finally turned to Garrus. He wore a bandage on the right side of his face and there was now a large hole in the cowl of his armor. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “Though nobody would give me a mirror. How bad is it?”

Shepard smiled, hoping he would know she was joking. “Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some facepaint on there and no one will even notice.”

She didn’t actually think that he was ugly. His face had a rugged charm about it that she liked. Her worry about the joke was alleviated when it got a surprise laugh out of him and he winced in pain. “Don’t make me laugh. My face is barely holding together as it is.”

After a moment he said, “You know, some women find facial scars attractive; granted most of those women are krogan.”

Shepard’s face heated into what she was sure was the most noticeable blush in the galaxy.

“When you two are done flirting,” said a grumpy James, “we need to figure out what to do about the missing shipment.”

“Can’t you just find a new supplier?” Shepard asked, all serious once more. “Since you didn’t transfer the money over it’s not like the shipment was yours anyway.”

“That’s another hiccup,” Garrus said. “Besides the missing teammate, we seem to be missing the funds that were authorized for the payment for the mods.”

“And before you ask, Lola, I was the only one who had the authorization to transfer those funds.”

“So you either need to recover the shipment, or the funds. Ideally both, I imagine,” she said. “So who’s this missing teammate? Are they all right? Or is this a traitor situation?”

Garrus looked at James like he was reluctant to say anything, but he finally spoke. “As much as I hate to say it, I’m inclined to think we were set up. After the initial shootout another shuttle arrived and pinned down Darixa on the perimeter where she was serving as scout. When I went to go assist, the shuttle stopped using the mostly avoidable machine gun fire it was using on her and went straight for the rockets to the face. Though beyond that I don’t know what happened since I woke up in the hospital.”

“There’s not much to tell after that,” James said. “In the chaos they got away with the shipment and Darixa didn’t answer comms. And I had to get you medical attention.”

Shepard leaned her face on her hand, elbow on the table. After a moment of thought she said, “One of my first questions then is why the fake pilot bothered to come to the meet anyway. If they were already in the possession of the shipment, why bother coming?”

“Yeah, that’s been bothering me too,” Garrus said. “I’m thinking that they needed an opportunity to steal the funds. So…”

“So,” James picked up the thread, “It’s starting to look more and more like I don’t know how to hire reliable security people.” He rubbed his tired face with vigor, exhaling loudly in frustration as he did so. “What I don’t get is why turn now? Darixa has been with the company for years. She’s practically one of my first hires!”

“Maybe she didn’t have a choice,” Garrus said. “She could have been blackmailed. Does she have any family on the Citadel? Or any secrets?”

“I don’t know about any secrets, but she does have a sister on the station.”

“See? It’s not so bad. You’ve got three avenues to investigate: Darixa and her sister, the stolen money, and the shuttle with the mods. Or the supplier. So that makes four, really,” Shepard said, injecting as much cheer as she could into her voice. 

She looked at her omni-tool for the time. It was a quarter to 8 and it would take her at least fifteen minutes to get to Anderson’s apartment if she hurried. “I’m sorry to have to kick you out, but we’re having an all hands on deck meeting at Anderson’s place in fifteen minutes so I’ve got to go.”

“Thanks for the tea, Lola. We’ll get out of your hair.” The two men stood up to leave. “And thanks for being a sounding board. I know you left the life behind, so it means a lot.”

“I’ll always be there to help you,” she said. After her friends walked out she quickly washed the mugs and placed them upside down to dry with the rest of the cups from the day. She finally removed her apron and did a quick final check before finally locking up for the night. She only had eight minutes left and seeing as the manager being late to an all hands meeting would be terribly unprofessional, she booked it, suddenly glad that she dragged herself out of bed every morning to go to the gym, even though she wasn’t in the Alliance anymore. 

She arrived at Anderson’s door with a minute to spare and she forced her breathing to calm before she opened the door and walked in.

***

Garrus and James parted ways with a plan to meet back up in the morning at James’s offices to make an official plan of action. If Garrus was being truly honest, while he was in quite a bit of pain from the rocket he took to the face, and although it’s been a few years since he’s been in C-Sec, the prospect of an investigation was an exciting one. But first sleep.

Even though he hadn’t yet had dinner, he was only vaguely aware that he might be hungry, and even then, he was too tired to care. By the time he trekked to his apartment, it was all he could do to strip out of his armor and tumble into bed. 

It was the return of the pain in his face which finally woke him in lieu of an alarm he never set. The pain was so bad that it nearly paralyzed his entire right side, the tortured nerves reaching from his face to his shoulder and all the way down his arm and torso. Luckily, the one thing he had remembered to do before collapsing in a stupor was put the painkillers from the hospital on his bedside table. He reached for the pill bottle, the nerves on his uninjured side screaming in sympathy for their compatriots. He had to take a quick break once the pill bottle was in his hand, but eventually the throbbing that resulted from the pain quieted down and bit and he was finally able to take one of the pills.

He closed his eyes, breathing shallow breaths, waiting for the medicine to kick in. This time he woke to the sound of a call on his omni-tool. “Hey Jimmy, what’s up?” he said, his voice rough even to his own hearing.

“I was just checking to make sure you hadn’t died in the night,” he said. “You never made it to the office this morning and you haven’t been answering my calls. Of course now it occurs to me that you should probably get the day off. What with your wrecked face and everything.”

Garrus looked at the time in the corner of his omni-tool display and saw that it was already afternoon. “No, I’m good.” He heaved himself out of bed, feeling a throbbing on his injured side but otherwise only a dull reminder that there was pain lurking there. “This can’t wait anymore. I’m sorry for not getting in earlier.”

“No need to apologize, Garrus. Seriously.”

“I’ll be over there as soon as I can put myself together,” Garrus said.

“All right, Scars. Up to you,” said James.

“’Scars’?” Garrus smiled. “That’s a new one.”

“Yeah, I figure that face of yours is really going to be something after you take off that bandage.”

“I figure it will,” Garrus said, thinking back on his witty repartee with Shepard the previous night. Maybe krogan women were not the only ones that found facial scars attractive.

Before that train of thought could travel much further, Garrus said, “I’ll see you soon.”

Having skipped several meals the day before, Garrus’s stomach was finally demanding its due, so he set about getting ready for the day as though it was any regular post-gym morning, and not the early afternoon after a skipped gym session due to severe injury. Thoughts of Shepard flitted about his mind again. He supposed that she continued going to the gym without him and James. She always glistened after working out really hard. What was it the humans called it?

Sweat. That was it.

As if thinking that he was making unreasonable demands by even thinking about the gym, his body protested and reminded him of the rocket he took to the face recently. He hoped to make the switch to medigel by that evening and wean himself off of pain management substances by tomorrow night. He needed to be at his sharpest with this investigation now beginning.

As he looked in the refrigerator, he was suddenly glad that he had indulged in the simple pleasures of cooking a few days prior, because now there was little effort needed on his part to acquire food. He heated one of the bygone dinners and dug in happily, though the actual eating process was considerably slowed by his injury. He was just thankful he could still use his mouth. He would not have enjoyed getting his nutrients through a straw. The miracles of modern medicine were plentiful.

The trip to the offices that James leased for his security consulting firm was uneventful, though the inside of the place was buzzing. Most of the team members, whom he’d only met briefly before that ill-fated mission, came up to him and patted him on the back, many making pained faces at the sight of the huge bandage on his face. He humored them with a recounting of the trip to the hospital, but he was glad when James poked his head out of his office.

“Let the poor man breathe!” he said. “Come on in, Garrus.”

Garrus eased himself into the chair opposite James’s desk. “I’m still surprised to see that you have an actual desk,” he remarked.

“Yeah,” James said after closing the door and sitting in his chair. “I’m still surprised by it myself, actually.”

“No coffee from Normandy today?” Garrus asked, nodding towards the empty spot on his desk where on a previous visit he had seen a to-go cup, even late into the afternoon.

“That explains my sleepiness!” James said with a laugh. “I was wondering why I felt off all day. I haven’t had any time today. You missed the big company-wide meeting. I’ve taken some people off of low priority stuff to help out on this investigation.” He pulled something up on his omni-tool and flicked the image up to project it so that Garrus could see.

It was an action board, listing current avenues of investigation and the people James had assigned to them. Garrus spotted his name next to “track the hack (follow the money).”

“I figured you’d be best for the job since, as I recall, you seem to be something of a tech expert,” James said.

Garrus chuckled. “Hold on, Jimmy. You haven’t agreed to my per diem rates yet. This is, after all, a new job I’m signing up for here.”

James smiled and pulled out a data pad from one of the drawers in his desk. “I hope our standard contractor PI contract will do?” He handed Garrus the data pad.

“Huh,” Garrus breathed. “I guess I am sort of a private investigator, aren’t I?”

“You should set up shop here on the Citadel, Scars. Less seedy work than Omega. Will pay better too.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Garrus said. He signed the contract with his digital signature after having read over it and found it satisfactory. James wasn’t kidding about the good rates. And this was apparently standard for his firm.

“All right,” he said, handing over the data pad. “You want me to find out where your money went.”

“Yeah,” James said. “You might actually want to talk to Shepard about this one. She’s got a friend that could help you.”

“Before I start adding friends of friends into this loop let me take a crack at it. If I need help, I’ll go talk to Shepard about her friend.”

“How you run with this is up to you,” James said. “Just keep me in the loop. I’ve given you temporary access to the company’s financial accounts and such. Try not to do anything funny with it. People get cranky when you start messing with payroll. And while you’re doing that, I’m trying to track down Tanno, the pilot we were supposed to have met with. We’ll have a team briefing tomorrow morning at 0800 on our progress.”

“Sounds good.” Garrus got up. “I guess I better get started then.”


	7. Business and Pleasure

While Garrus was normally the type to want peace and quiet when he was working, he felt compelled to be in public. Perhaps it was the fact that he was technically on vacation, or that he couldn’t just sit down and enjoy being out in the world while he was on Omega, but the idea of spending a day outside of his apartment fortress appealed and he found himself drawn back to Normandy Coffee. 

The late afternoon lull before a shift change made for a café empty enough for Garrus to get a table of his own by the counter. He placed an order with a human whose name was Kaidan, if he recalled correctly. He’d only met him briefly at James’s party a week back. He could almost see Kaidan flinch every time his eyes grazed over Garrus’s new facial accessory. Garrus tried not to take it personally.

As he headed for one of the empty tables he casually glanced towards the “Employees Only” room behind the counter but still didn’t see his favorite red head. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Garrus started in on his caffeinated beverage and pulled out his omni-tool, setting the screen up to cause the least amount of discomfort as was possible since he was planning on camping out for a while. He engaged the privacy screen as well. He’d hate to be called unprofessional by Jimmy Vega of all people.

The soft murmur of the patrons’ conversations and the chime of the door as people walked in and out became a soothing white noise to Garrus as he zoned in on the financial records of James’s firm. 

Seeing the success of his friend in such cold hard numbers made Garrus proud. James had been through hell and it was good to know that he was doing so well for himself. Garrus started off by matching the transaction history to the firm’s successful dealings so that he could establish a baseline, especially for the firm’s previous dealings with this particular customer. 

While there were certainly less than… savory dealings, there was nothing in particular to distinguish this client from the others. And then there was the matter of the hack to consider. Garrus saw the transaction of the stolen funds, listed as having been approved by James himself.

He was so absorbed in his work that he didn’t notice that someone had approached him until a pastry was put in front of him with a delicate clink of the plate and a scrape of a fork.

“I didn’t order a pastry,” he said before he looked up into Shepard’s smiling face.

“I know,” she said. “I got it for you. You looked like you needed it.” She sat down across from him.

“I look that bad, huh?”

“I’m not talking about the new scars. You look exhausted. Besides, my baker is human and she needs a test subject for the new dextro recipes she’s trying out.” 

“Ah so this is purely a business transaction,” he said, almost purring. Another turian would be able to tell that he was flirting, however poorly, but he had no idea how well Shepard might pick up on the cues by the sound of his voice alone.

“Who says it can’t be business and pleasure?” she said with a wicked grin. Before Garrus could get himself together enough to come up with a clever response, she nodded towards his holographic screen. “Work go you down?”

“How do you know I’m working and not watching Fleet and Flotilla or something?” he said, naming the first vid that came to mind. He was immediately embarrassed and hoped that she wouldn’t recognize the reference as a romantic movie about an interspecies relationship with a turian. While the other half of that particular relationship was a quarian, he still didn’t want to give away any inklings of his developing crush. Spirits, he was rusty at flirting.

Not missing a beat she said, “I would expect a person watching Fleet and Flotilla to have a more pleased expression on their face. You were frowning. Or at least, what I think is a turian frown?”

“More or less, I suppose,” he said. A pause. “You’ve seen Fleet and Flotilla?”

“Of course! I’m a sucker for romantic vids. Made me cry and everything,” she said happily. Her cheeks flushed at the admission and Garrus smiled.

“What did you think of it?” she said. His heart skipped a beat. She was flirting back, right? That’s what this had to be.

“Hey, Shepard!” Kaidan called from the counter. “Can you come here for a sec?”

“Sorry, I should go. You’ll tell me later, yeah?”

“Sure,” he said. He’d have to watch Fleet and Flotilla again for a refresher. He didn’t want to seem uninformed now that he said he’d share his opinions on it. It looked like his night was now booked. He smiled to himself, remembering Shepard’s cute little blush. He didn’t know everything about human physiological responses, but he at least knew about blushing.

He went back to beating his head against his work. Eventually he had to admit defeat. He just didn’t have the skills advanced enough to trace this hack. He’d have to ask Shepard about her tech expert friend after all. He looked up and was about to walk over to her to ask when he caught snippets of her conversation with Kaidan.

“I’ve missed you,” Kaidan said quietly. The two of them kept talking for a while but all Garrus could make out was Shepard saying, “I care about you very much.”

Any hope that had been blossoming within him suddenly died and he was surprised how much it hurt. He sighed and sagged deeper into his chair. Of course they were together. He was surprised he hadn’t seen it before. Flirting aside, whether imagined or not, few would venture the interspecies border. And even if Shepard didn’t care about that, she was already with Kaidan. Garrus was the interloper here.

He ducked his head down and buried himself back in his work. Maybe there was something he could find without help. Regardless, he couldn’t talk to Shepard about her friend right now.

***

“Sure,” Garrus said and went back to his work. At least now she had an excuse to talk to him again. Not that she needed an excuse to talk to a friend or anything, but since they had established a conversation about a romance involving a turian, it wouldn’t be weird to bring it up again. Looks like she was going to have to watch Fleet and Flotilla again tonight. She wanted a refresher and she was in the mood for something romantic.

Shepard walked back to her station, mentally counting the hours until she was done with work and could go home and watch that vid with dinner. There wasn’t a line of customers that she needed to help with so she leaned on the counter, a hand casually on her hip.

“What’s up?”

There was a pause. “That’s Garrus, right?” Kaidan asked. It didn’t look like that was what he wanted to talk about.

“Yeah,” she said, as though she didn’t notice the stiffness in his shoulders. “New friend. You met him at James’s party probably.”

“I don’t remember all the bandages, though. What’s the story there?”

“Job gone sideways. He took some rockets to the face.”

Kaidan’s face scrunched up in sympathetic agony. “Tough guy.”

They looked in the turian’s direction. Shepard smiled. “That he is.”

A customer came in and Kaidan made her order as Shepard began to refresh the pastry display cases. When he faced her again he said, “So, do you have any ideas for the competition?”

“I have… notions,” Shepard laughed. “The most concrete of which is to do some reconnaissance on our competitors.”

Kaidan shrugged. “Not a bad place to start.”

“I figured I’d go on my next day off, which is…” she trailed off as she pulled up the work schedule. “Tomorrow. Huh. I forgot I didn’t have to come in tomorrow.”

“You always forget.”

“There’s a lot that needs to get done!” she said defensively.

“You need a hobby,” Kaidan said, eyebrow raised and a curl on his lip. 

“And I’m sure that one day I’ll get over my existential crisis and find myself one. Until then,” she picked up a rag and started wiping down the counter, though it hardly needed the attention. “We have work to do, so get to it, mister!”

“Aye, aye, Commander,” he quipped, and started working his way down the checklist of mid-shift duties.

Shepard could feel a tension between the two of them. Kaidan was gearing up to say something. She waited until he got around to it. After some more customers came and went the café went quiet again, with only Garrus and a few other regulars scattered around the tables, all absorbed in their omni-tools, music quietly playing.

“I’d like to talk about us,” Kaidan said evenly, not looking at her.

“Oh?” she said carefully. While she suspected that that was what he wanted to talk about, she still felt a weird flip in her insides when he actually spoke.

“I’ve missed you,” he said quietly. “And I know this probably isn’t the time or the place, but…I had to say it. I want things to go back to what they were.”

“Kaidan…”

“Look, Shepard, I understand why you did what you did-“

She held up her hand to stop him. Her indignation was sudden and it shot through her chest and up her neck. She had to bite it down before she said something she couldn’t take back. She took a breath and sadness replaced the anger. When she spoke, it was quietly. It was, after all, neither the time nor the place for this conversation, but they had started down this path and she needed to see it through. 

“You left me when I needed you,” she said softly. “I care about you very much, Kaidan. But we can’t go back to where we were. Nothing is the same. We aren’t the same.”

“It’s… not the answer I was hoping for. But I understand.” He cleared his throat. They went back to work with what could almost be called companionable silence.

Joker arrived for his shift not long after and Kaidan departed for the evening, waving goodbye. As the evening crowd thinned out and it was getting closer to closing time, Garrus remained at his table, transfixed by his screen. Shepard didn’t think he even noticed her refilling his cup with tea periodically, he just kept robotically sipping every once in a while.

Finally, they were the only two remaining in the café after Joker left for the night. “I’ll finish up,” Shepard said to him. 

“You’re the best manager, Shepard,” Joker grinned, tossing his apron onto a hook in the back room.

She started putting up chairs and washing the floors, starting furthest away from the counter. Once she neared Garrus she decided to finally disturb him. “Any luck?”

He startled, as though she tugged him out of a trance. Upon seeing her he settled, but he still had a sad look about him. “Unfortunately no. This hack is almost untraceable. If I didn’t know any better I would have assumed that it was a legitimate transaction.”

Shepard nodded. “I’ve got that friend that I mentioned earlier. She might be able to help. She’s the best engineer you’ll ever meet.”

“Yeah,” Garrus said slowly. He looked around and upon noticing the empty café and put up chairs, he got up. “It looks like I need the help after all. How can I reach her?”

Shepard took a breath. Here goes nothing. “Tell you what, you help me scope out some cafes tomorrow and I’ll introduce you.”

He looked surprised. “Why do you need to scope out cafes?”

“The owner of this place entered us into a competition and I want to see what we’re up against. You in?”

He looked uncertain and Shepard chided herself. The man was busy with an investigation! Why would he go visiting coffee shops with her all day when he had work to do? Even when she was in the Alliance, the stakes were different, but she could imagine the pressure he was under.

She was about to say something to absolve him of having to awkwardly turn her down when to her surprise, he agreed.

“Sure,” he said. “And I appreciate the introduction.”

“No problem,” she said smoothly, as if her stomach wasn’t doing backflips with elation. “Thanks for coming with me. Meet me at my place tomorrow morning at 7. I’ll send you the address.” She took out her omni-tool and sent him the info. “The first café I want to visit is near my apartment.”

“Sounds like a-“ He cut himself off. “Plan,” he finished.

Shepard thought he was going to say “date” and felt disappointed that he had finished that sentence the way he had. “All right, I have to kick you out now,” she said, hoping the disappointment didn’t show. “I’ve got to close up and we have an early morning. I want to get there in the thick of the morning rush.”

“See you tomorrow, Shepard,” Garrus said and walked to the door.

“See you!” Shepard stacked the cup and plate Garrus left behind, reaching over to wipe down the table.

“Oh and Shepard?” he said, leaning in from outside. “Thanks for the pastry.”

“My pleasure.” She smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was always bothered by the scene at the Citadel in Mass Effect 3 between Kaidan and Shepard if you romanced him in the first game. He outright accuses Shepard of cheating and that never sat right with me. the way I see it, Shepard didn't cheat, Kaidan left her. They weren't together. So her starting a relationship with Garrus in ME2 shouldn't be something that she had to apologize for. And the fact that you don't have an option to defend yourself in that conversation left me salty. So here's my version of how a conversation like that would go down.


End file.
